Technical advances in two-dimensional and three-dimensional graphics design software have allowed even extremely cost-sensitive graphics developers to generate still image and video graphics of high complexity and quality. Given the vast number of graphics functions, effects, options, and the like that a graphics application may now provide, the standard keyboard, video, and mouse user interface is now seen by some as impeding user access to those functions. For example, use of a two-dimensional display screen for viewing a graphical image, in conjunction with a separately-located two-dimensional pointing device, such as a mouse, is sometimes perceived as restricting a user's ability to fully visualize and control a three-dimensional graphical object or image. The use of a touchscreen combining these input and output interface functions may serve to improve the designer's experience by co-locating the manipulation and viewing operations. However, a touchscreen, in and of itself, is inherently a two-dimensional component, thus potentially limiting a designer's ability to create and manipulate a three-dimensional graphical object.
Enhancements to the commonly available types of user interface hardware have been devised in an attempt to provide easier and more intuitive user access to those functions. Typically, these enhancements involve adding one or more specialized cameras, sensors, eyewear, and/or displays to the computing system hosting the graphics software, thus significantly increasing the hardware costs of that system.